REVIEW: Help Us! Great Warrior #3

Publishers: Boom! Box
Created by: Madeleine Flores
Written and Illustrated by: Madeleine Flores
Colours by: Trillian Gunn
Cover by: Williams Gibbons
Designer: Scott Newman
Editor: Shannon Watters
Released: 04/08/2015

Coming straight at you from the cuteness dimension, Help Us! Great Warrior feels like a comic that can occupy the same worlds as Adventure Time, Cory Lewis“s Seedless and the web-comic The Abominable Charles Christopher (http://abominable.cc/). Imagine the shared universes that DC and Marvel have for their super-heroes but here our protagonists go on adventures that will have you puking rainbows.

The artwork is fantastically accessible, utilizing minimalism to enhance the cuteness of its characters. You wouldn“t think you could create such expression from basic shapes but every character (even the small ones) have personalities that exude fun. Even the antagonists “the demons”“ have a sense of mischievous joyfulness about them.

One of the three main characters named Hadiyah who possesses great magical powers asks the Great Warrior “Will she save the world from the Demon King?!”“ A monumental task that would sit heavily on the mind of any great hero”¦

But our hero is a cute green blob stylishly sporting red bow on top of her head. She responds to the question by gleefully asking what moisturizer does Hadiyah use as she has soft hands, much to the dismay of Haiyah.

The third main character is Leo. Looking like a punk-rock haired version of Hawkgirl, mace and all! She represents the no-nonsense aspect to this story, eager to fight when called upon by the great warrior.

There“s a great balancing of non-cynical, kid friendly antics and small nods to the wonderfully absurd. Our heroes feast on fried meat berries and owe the merchant friendship not money in exchange. But on the other hand the Great Warrior points out that that“s a bad business model, that she has no enemies as they are destroyed before they cross her and her sword is from Demonside (this same sword has a bunny head for a hilt).

On a cynical level you could (incorrectly) pass this off as a pseudo-child comic aiming for a hipster market (Adventure Time sometimes come to mind) but it has a great sense of earnestness. The characters are diverse, well rounded and in a female predominant cast there“s no patronizing going on here. I was captured by the style and characters from the off and the simple yet delightful twist at the end has ensured that despite being a 24 year old bloke that I will be reading issue 4.

Help Us! Great Warrior receives a four out of five stars.

[yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]